Undeniable (Cloverleigh Farms #2)(13)

“What’s so weird about it? We’re friends, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, but …” He struggled for words. “I didn’t know this was what you meant. I haven’t even heard from you since prom.”

“I know.” I lowered my head a little and peeked up at him through my lashes. “You still mad about that night?”

“Kind of.” He crossed his muscular arms over his chest. He’d filled out a little since coming to college. “You fucking baited me into messing around with you, and then you took off.”

“I didn’t bait you. I dared you.” I leaned back on my hands and swung my feet. “It’s not my fault you couldn’t resist.”

A scowl appeared on his face. “Well, I’m not having sex with you.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a trap. You’ll dare me to take my pants off or some shit, and I’ll get all worked up, and then you’ll decide at the last second that you don’t really want to fuck me, you’re just mad at your dad or something, and you’ll—”

“Oliver, that’s not what this is.”

He eyeballed me warily and took a step back, dropping onto his roommate’s bed directly across from me. “Then what is it?”

I took a breath and launched into the speech I had prepared. “I put off having sex when all my friends were doing it in high school because I wanted it to be right and meaningful, with the perfect guy. But now I think that’s stupid.”

“It was stupid then too.”

I ignored that and went on. “The longer I put it off, the more it builds up in my mind. I want to get the first time out of the way so it doesn’t feel like such a big deal.”

“Are you drunk?” he asked, squinting at me.

“No! I haven’t had a drop of alcohol tonight.” I stood up and started pacing back and forth between the two beds. “Look, all my friends are being pressured into having sex with these total assholes who don’t respect them and treat them like shit. I want my first time to be on my terms with someone I know and trust.”

“You trust me?” He sounded surprised.

“Up to a point,” I said carefully. “I mean, I’d never actually date you, but for my current purposes, you’ll do.”

“I’ll do?” He stood up and puffed out his chest. “I’ll have you know that there are a lot of girls dying to sleep with me. I don’t need to be your trust fuck just to get laid.”

“I know,” I told him. “And I figure your experience will come in handy. That’s another reason why I chose you.”

I was leaving out the third reason, because I didn’t want to say it out loud—that our kiss on prom night still had the power to turn me on whenever I thought about his body beneath mine, and the sensual way he kissed. I was attracted to Oliver without having a crush on him, which made him the perfect candidate to help me accomplish my goal.

He kept looking at me, like he wasn’t sure whether this was a joke or a dream. “Why wouldn’t you ever date me?”

“Because I’ve known you too long, and I know you too well. Your priority is a good time. You’d never be faithful to me. Plus you’re immature, conceited, spoiled—”

“Okay, okay.” He held up one hand and frowned. “I get the point.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“How come I feel like I’m supposed to lecture you about having more respect for your body?” he asked, shaking his head. “What the actual fuck is wrong with me right now?”

“I do have respect for my body.” Because I felt like he might not agree to my plan, I decided to take it to the next level.

Step one—I grabbed the bottom of my sweater and whipped it over my head, letting it drop to the floor.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as his eyes drifted down my chest. Beneath the sweater, I’d worn a very fitted black tank top with a scoop neck and a pushup bra. The look on his face was exactly what I’d been hoping for. Boys were so predictable.

Step two—I took off the tank top and let it fall from my fingers. “Come on. Say yes. Don’t you want to?”

“Yes, I want to,” he answered, his voice raw, his gaze on the rounded tops of my breasts above the top of that ridiculous bra. When I took it off, he was probably going to feel cheated.

“Good.” Time for step three. I reached behind my back and unhooked the bra. But before it slipped from my shoulders, he slammed his eyes shut.

“Jesus, Chloe. What the fuck are you doing to me? I’m all …” He swallowed hard and squirmed before opening one eye and adjusting the crotch of his jeans. “Confused.”

“Why?”

He looked at me seriously. “Because no-strings-attached sex with a hot girl is pretty much a guy’s dream, and I’m sitting here trying to talk myself out of doing it. I feel like I’m in the fucking Twilight Zone.”

“Look, Oliver. I want this. I’ve thought this through. I want to lose my virginity, and I want it to be with you.” I started hooking my bra again. “But if you’re not willing and able, I’ll have to find—”

“Wait, wait, wait just a damn minute,” he said, sticking his chest out again, hands on his hips. “I never said I wasn’t willing. And I’m definitely fucking able.”